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Chaitanya, a developmental organization established in 1993, is one of the pioneers
of community based micro finance institutions in Maharashtra, India. It has been a catalyst in facilitating the process to get the rural women out of the vicious cycle of poverty. Chaitanya has provided these women the much needed social security and a platform which can address their financial and social needs.

Vision

A gender just, equitable and self-reliant society where women have access to and control over financial and other resources.

Mission

Building capacities of rural poor especially women and youth by promoting and strengthening self-reliant and sustainable institutions to enable them to led the process of development for a better quality of life.

Objectives

Build local capacities of rural poor, especially women to form self--reliant people’s institutions. Develop village level people’s institutions to be the core of development process

Evolve strong, sustainable partnerships of local institutions with local government machinery as well as other local organizations

Evolve consensus in the formulation of gender equitable, village level development plan in the areas of health, water and sanitation and organic farming

Build knowledge and resource base related to self help groups and other sustainable people’s institutions for rural development and women's empowerment

Create platforms for integrated learning space for various partners involved in rural development through networking and convergence

Our programs are mutually reinforcing and try to address social issues in a holistic manner. However, to aid understanding, we have tried to classify our efforts into three inter-connected layers as illustrated in the diagram.

Grassroots: Activities in which we directly work with the community.Capacity Building and Research: Activities in which we try to build capacities of individuals or institutions who, in turn, work with the community.Networking and Policy Advocacy: Activities in which we learn from and share our experience with the various stakeholders of the SHG movement.
Although all our activities in each of the layers are equally important to us, we strongly believe that continuous learning from our grassroots activities helps us in designing effective capacity building programs and correctly influencing required policies.